Dentist role in detecting Mouth cancer

Mouth (Oral) cancer is a serious health issue. There were over 8, 700 new cases of mouth cancer in the UK last year alone . Mouth cancer affects men over 55 twice as women, and the five - year survival rate is around 50 to 60% due to late diagnosis. There are many risk factors but tobacco , alcohol and HPV infection are the main causes of mouth cancer. Symptoms include mouth ulcers, white or red patches lasting over three weeks, swelling or lumps in the mouth etc.

Treating oral cancer lesion at early stage is the most effectual way to reduce mortality, disfigurement and complications. Oral cancer gets less attention than other type of cancer , that results in delaying of diagnosis and poor outcome.

NHS Statistics show only 15.8m adult and 5.1m children accessed dental services in 2021 in the preceding 24-month period. This has slightly improved since we come out of the pandemic but still many adults and their children do not visit a dentist regularly. since the pandemic we have seen a decrease in patient attendance and we are now detecting more cases of oral cancer more than ever before.

When I was a dental student thirty years ago in Sweden, we were told that it would be rare to come across oral cancer during our entire dental career. However, In my 25 years career as a general dental practitioner - mostly in Christchurch, I have personally diagnosed several cases of mild to aggressive mouth cancers, in or around the face, head and neck areas.

Cancer is very close to my heart. I was horrified to learn that my father was diagnosed with head and neck cancer about 20 years ago. One day he noticed a lump in his throat when shaving. It was later diagnosed as a stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma (the most common form of oral cancer). I was horrified. He endured aggressive surgery, chemo and radiotherapy but shortly he succumbed to the inevitable at the age of 63.

Since then, without fail, I have been examining every patient on my dental chair to ensure that they do not present any symptoms of potential pre-cancer changes in or around their mouth, face, head and neck I have seen patients who had early symptoms or lesions of oral cancer and I referred them to secondary care for further investigations. Dentists and dental hygienists are the only dedicated professionals regularly examining a pat ient’s mouth. I believe in early detection and management of mouth cancers that could achieve better outcomes and save lives

If you and your family are not regularly visiting a dentist, please make this your new year’s resolution to avoid all dental diseases as well as undetected oral cancer.

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